Early log cabin found within local home

The men and women who settled our country lived a difficult life, traveling across vast prairies and plains via wagon and on horseback, and finding shelter in rough log houses when they chose the land where they would finally put down roots.

Most of those early log cabins have been relegated to the history books. But in 1983 one couple found one hidden within the walls of the old home they bought in far West suburban Elburn. In fact, it turned out to be one of the last remaining log cabins in Kane County.

Jim and Pat Ward suspected there might be a log cabin within the home they purchased on 3.7 acres in a rural area west of Geneva because of the thickness of some of the walls. Also, they noticed floor joists made of logs when they went into the partial basement and looked up at the ceiling above it.

When the Wards purchased the home, it was literally falling down. In fact, the first two architects they called in for an opinion told them to tear the house down and start over. But the third felt it had possibilities, so they decided to gut the house and carefully rebuild it.

But after tearing out walls and floors, they quickly realized the only sound part of the home was an eastern section. After scrubbing off the filthy whitewashed plaster and lathe, they found the walls of a small, two-story log cabin contained within.

Based on early accounts published in the Kane County Atlas in 1892, it appears the log cabin was probably built in the late 1830s. When an itinerant preacher came through in 1837, he wrote of two “Pennsylvania Dutchmen” named Mallo and Spangler living on the property. Mallo, he wrote, was a brick maker who produced bricks for chimneys and wells.

Further research by the Wards revealed the larger home was built in 1867 by William Boardman, a laborer who came from England to work for the original owner of the land, Noah Lakin. In fact, the Wards found a nickel under the threshold of the larger home, along with the name of William Boardman and the date 1867. They discovered that was typically done for good luck in those days.

Boardman obviously added on to the log cabin he found on the land, more than doubling its size, plastering over the log walls and transforming the original cabin into one of the larger home's front rooms, as well as a bedroom above.

“We weren't history buffs. We didn't buy this place for its history,” Jim said. “But this house has changed everyone in the family. Our kids even appreciate history and this lifestyle because we lived here.”

And the fact that a log cabin was a visible part of their home (with exposed log walls in several rooms) dictated the type of kitchen cabinets they chose, the type of fireplace they built and even the fact they furnished much of the home with country-style antiques.

“You can't put up any old oak cabinets in the kitchen when you have a log wall on the opposite side of the room,” Jim said. “So we had an Amish craftsman build us pine cabinets with seeded glass fronts.”

As for the fireplace, Jim built it himself from stones found in the 1867 home's foundation and elsewhere on the property. The stones were not the only materials the Wards reused from the “new” portion of the home that they razed. One of those 1867 foundation beams now adorns the foyer. A staircase within the log cabin portion of the house was made from lumber salvaged from the 1867 addition. Southern pine floors adorn the floors of all the bedrooms and that, too, was salvaged from the addition.

Virtually all of the work on the house, including the laborious scrubbing of the log walls of the cabin, was done by the Wards themselves.

“My electrician father did most of the electrical work and I had the main staircase built of cherry by someone else,” Jim said. “In addition, I had a plumber friend of mine supervise my plumbing work and sign off on it, and I didn't pour the concrete for the foundation. But other than that, I did all the work myself over many years.

“The house was uninhabitable while the heavy work (of) building the new house around the log cabin was completed. We finally moved in during the spring of 1985 but we lived without any trim or floor coverings for a very long time,” he said.

Work on the new farmhouse with its wraparound porch and small attached solarium greenhouse continued until about 2000 because the Wards made a conscious decision to put their children first, spending time on Boy Scouts, Brownies and coaching sports, rather than being slaves to their home. They worked on the house in their spare time.

They also made an effort to recycle items from the old home they tore down and to build their new home to be energy efficient. It can be entirely heated by an antique-look, wood-burning stove in the foyer (although a regular furnace was also installed) and the east, west and north-facing walls were all built to a double thickness with extra insulation. That was not necessary with the south-facing walls.

Today the log cabin is the centerpiece of the home with its exposed and scrubbed-clean log walls forming one of the walls, each, of the kitchen and the foyer, which were built around the log cabin, along with the living room, powder room and solarium on the main floor and four bedrooms and two baths upstairs. The old loft of the log cabin serves as a small sitting area off the master suite, which was added above the new kitchen.

The Wards refer to the room within the walls of the log cabin as the “library.” It is the cozy little space where they place their Christmas tree each year and cuddle up with a good book.

Along the back wall you can still see peg holes where shelves were once hung and where a ladder once led to the upper sleeping area. Since there was no fireplace, the Wards hypothesize that the log cabin was heated by a wood-burning stove because there was quite a bit of creosote buildup on the logs in the back when they uncovered them. That has since been painstakingly scrubbed off.

The Wards also think the cabin originally sported a log roof because you can still see the pockets where those logs would have sat. But the roof was probably replaced when the cabin was enlarged into a house in 1867. They also guess that the root cellar-style basement below was dug sometime after the log cabin was built because of the irregular shape of the foundation and base logs.

“I think that the log cabin sat on the ground for quite some time and when they dug the basement below and put in a stone foundation, the top of the foundation conformed to the rotted shape of the base logs,” Jim said.

In recent years, the Wards have devoted their time to their gorgeous yard, which features huge old walnut and maple trees, a large deck, brick walkways, fountains, a variety of plantings, a huge vegetable garden, herb garden, a detached garage with a tin roof and even an old chicken coop they have transformed into a shed with an attached pergola sheltering a brick patio.

Because the Wards have decided to move to warmer climes, this unique home and historic treasure is currently on the market for $385,000. For more information, call Jamie Daniel at Miscella Real Estate, (630) 232-1752.